FRussell: Caleb Kenney rounds five, six summary

After sweeping Rounds 3 & 4 for the 2007 SCCA Formula Russell
Championship last month, Caleb Kenney came to the Infineon Raceway ready
for more action packed races and fans were not disappointed. In
qualifying for Round 5, Kenney...

After sweeping Rounds 3 & 4 for the 2007 SCCA Formula Russell
Championship last month, Caleb Kenney came to the Infineon Raceway ready
for more action packed races and fans were not disappointed. In
qualifying for Round 5, Kenney waited to post a fast lap in the 20 minute
session, and was able to take his fifth pole position of the season by a
slim two thousandths of a second from series newcomer Brett Van Blankers.
With qualifying done in the morning and rain forecasted in the afternoon,
the weather would not be cooperative for the 25 minute race. With a
steady rain falling, Kenney lead the field to a single-file start. Kenney
and, Canadian Van Blankers were the class of the field, posting fast laps
in the inclement conditions to gap the rest of the field and battle for
the lead. In the opening laps, Kenney, with a small lead, started to
search for grip on the soaked 2.2 mile Infineon Raceway. The search for
grip would prove costly as Kenney could not recover a snap spin in the
fast Turn 1. Kenney recovered to come on track in fourth place and would
log the fastest lap of the race and finish in the fourth position.

Qualifying for Round 6 was again, held in tricky conditions.
With the track in half wet conditions and all cars running racing slicks,
Kenney waited until the end of the session to attempt to post a fast lap.
Unluckily, another car hit standing water in turn 7 and crashed into a
retaining wall just past the 10 minute mark. With the car stuck in a
dangerous spot, qualifying was cut short without Kenney posting a fast
lap. Kenney was classified in fourth, ending a streak of five consecutive
pole position starts. The weather had cleared by the start of the race,
and Kenney got right down to business. After losing a position on the
start, Kenney would gain the spot back with an aggressive pass in turn 4.
As the laps wound down Kenney made several aggressive passes to take
third and then second positions. With two laps to go, Kenney would catch
and apply serious pressure to race leader LeDuc. After taking the white
flag, Kenney attempted an overly aggressive pass in turn 7 and the pair
would go side by side on the exit of turn 7. LeDuc had more rolling speed
and took the lead back into turn 8. Kenney would cross the line in second
place just 0.378 seconds behind LeDuc.